AES04
by SiniseSnakeEyes
Summary: What if Howard hadn't just ignored Tony since he had been born but hated him? What if he had given Tony to a secret lab? What would happen to Tony from there onwards? Read and find out! Rated M, just to be on the save side but mostly T. I think...
1. Prologue: How it began

**Prologue: How it began**

* * *

_**Note: This story will only be around three to four chapters + the prologue (if I don't get some new **_**_spontaneous ideas...). So enjoy! ^^_**

* * *

The first memory Tony had was someone – a man – grabbing him hard and dark eyes looking down at him with hate and disgust.

The second was a woman laying him onto a hard pillow, throwing a light blanket over him carelessly and leaving without any words.

All of his early memories consisted of dark hateful eyes and two voices talking – hatred lacing their words – "Why did we have to give birth to such a child?" The woman once asked her husband.

Only a few – such sacred few – memories had another feeling to them, one that Tony couldn't pinpoint but compared to the others, they made him feel warm and save. Time passed, Tony's understanding grew in frightening speed, this helped him realise that the hatred and disgust of the man – Howard – and the woman – Maria – that was directed at him only grew and intensified once he could barely walk.

When the two adults were drunk, they would scream at him and throw things at him so fast that Tony couldn't dodge them with the age of only one.

Jarvis, the butler, was the only person who behaved differently towards him in the whole house: treating his wounds gently, hugging him when something wet leaked out of his eyes and ran down his cheek (Jarvis once told him that they were called 'tears').

Tony, despite his clearly brilliant mind, couldn't comprehend this behaviour – why would the butler do that when his creators ('parents' according to Jarvis) didn't want anything to do with him?

Another three years passed in this pattern, until Tony's fourth birthday where Jarvis came running into his small cold room and scooped him up. Tony sensing the tension in the butler, prepared for the worst and didn't ask the questions that were swirling around his mind – Howard and Maria didn't like him to talk without permission and even though Jarvis had once said that Tony could ask him everything, he preferred to find the answers himself. But Tony didn't even have to ask because Jarvis hurriedly and quietly explained to Tony while he tried to sneak through the mansion with Tony still in his arms. "I heard Master Stark saying that he wants to give you away to a place where they will be even worse than here. So I will get you out of here before its too late young Master Tony!" The words as harsh as they would sound for a normal four year old, were just another reason why Tony felt this strange warm and fuzzy feeling inside in Jarvis' company. Despite Tony's young age the man understood that his charge was anything but normal (even without his parents input) and so he treated Tony like someone older but his words still held a certain kind of warmth to them.

They had almost reached the door that leaded out of the house when suddenly Howard stepped out of another room, blocking the path to their goal. Howard's voice was as cold as ice when he spoke: "What do you think you are doing with him,Jarvis?"

The butler didn't answer, he couldn't, he was practically frozen to the spot, only reinforcing his hold on his charge and looking fearfully at his employer.

"You will hand him over right now Jarvis or you will face the consequences." Tony realised that Jarvis' 'consequences' wouldn't just consist of a pay cut and struggled out of the butler's hold. Landing on the ground with a small thud, he slowly walked towards Howard giving Jarvis one last (apologetic) look. Howard grabbed Tony's arm in a death grip and pulled him out of the house where a car was just driving onto the grounds but not before he gave his butler one last cold stare.

Two men stepped out of the car and the older Stark greeted them with a polite for-the-press-smile before pushing Tony towards them. "Make sure we never see him again and I hope you will hold on to our agreement of never mentioning my or my wife's part in your experiments."

The younger of the two men grabbed Tony and injected him with something. The last words he heard before darkness overtook him were spoken in a strangely accented voice: "Of course Mr Stark and thank you. I am sure that he will help us to coming closer towards our goal…"

* * *

The next time Tony opened his eyes; he was in what one of Howard's books (which he hadn't been allowed to even touch but did anyway when the older man and his wife weren't home) had called a plane. Small handcuffs were binding him to a pipe over his head. He was still trying to analyse his surroundings when suddenly the younger of the two man that had taken him away from the mansion (from Jarvis!), crouched in front of him. He met the man's emotionless stare with one of his own.

"Doctor, the boy is already awake!" The man said in what Tony recognized as Russian, and didn't turn away from Tony. The older man appeared in Tony's line of vision, grey steaks were running through his black hair and cold grey eyes studied him like an interesting specimen (which he was to them).

"Interesting, the anaesthetic should have held till we reach our destination… Well it doesn't really matter." The grey-eyed Doctor said back in Russian (it seemed that they thought he couldn't understand them just because he was four, first mistake) and his next words were directed at Tony in English. "You get one warning boy: you are now our property and if you try to escape we will just collect you and punish you for your misbehaviour. Do you understand?"

Tony nodded in understanding and received a slap in the face. "You will answer verbally!" The younger man demanded with in a heavily accented English.

Tony pushed down the urge to hold his cheek, which was stinging, it had made Howard and Maria only more furious when he showed such weakness and he was sure that wasn't different with these men and so he let his face slip into an emotionless mask as he answered steadily. "Yes sir, I understand."

A smile graced the grey-eyed man's face. "Good. Now, since you are already awake we can already give you your designation. From today on you won't answer to the name of Anthony Edward Stark anymore but to AES04, understood?" "Yes sir." "Good. You can call me Dr Turgenev by the way. We will land any minute now and you will stay at Dmitry's side." He indicated the younger man and Tony responded dutifully with a "Yes sir." as it seemed to be expected of him.

A few minutes later they landed just as Dr Turgenev had said and Tony could only make out a militaristic looking landing base before Dmitry pushed him into a car. They rode the way in silence, Tony – now handcuff-free – stared out of the window looking at the fast passing scenery that he thought could be the last time he would see anything of the outside (from what he concluded from Jarvis' description of the place he was going to).

After some time the car drove into a hangar from where Dmitry and Dr Turgenev brought him to an underground lab where other children from two to fifteen years were doing different things: some were tested by doctors, others were training and again others were fighting against each other under the supervision of a guard and scientists.

"Look closely AES04, these are your 'classmates'. We will test you and determine how fit you are for our purpose and assign you accordingly." Dr Turgenev said as Tony stopped at one window were a redheaded three year old was strapped to a table and scientists poked here with needles and other things. Despite the treatment the little girl wasn't screaming and only one tear escaped her seemingly total control. Tony could only stare, shocked, before Dmitry pulled him along to continue their way.

Ten steps later they entered a lab where a boy, maybe ten years old, was patiently sitting and letting the doctors take a blood sample. Dr Turgenev smiled his fake smile at the boy and said in Russian: "Ah, LK05! Just the boy I was looking for." A small sliver of surprised came over his face before it vanished as fast as it came. "How can I be of assistance Dr Turgenev?" LK05 asked politely.

"We have a new addition" he waved at Tony and LK05's gaze shifted for two seconds to Tony before he refocused on Dr Turgenev again "His name is AES04. I want you to instruct him on how things work around here and to teach him Russian. He is _American_." "Of course Dr Turgenev." LK05 replied dutifully.

"Good, then please wait outside while AES04 is being tested." "Yes sir." And LK05 moved out of the room together with Dmitry, leaving Tony with Dr Turgenev and the other doctors. "Well then AES04, let's see what you can do…"

* * *

They tested Tony in various things; fitness, IQ (which was incredibly high for a child his age but it didn't surprise Tony who had been told by Jarvis that he was smarter than other children his age) and so on. Tony was pretty sure that they tested him for a few hours at least till they finally released him out of the lab to meet LK05. He was now wearing a grey shirt, grey trousers and sneakers that seemed to be standard clothing for the children at the facility. LK05 turned to him when he stepped out of the test room; a ghost of a smile on his lips when he looked Tony over who looked ready to keel over on the spot so tired was he. "Welcome to the Red Room, AES." Tony startled at the short form of his new name, frowned and asked: "Why do you do that?"

LK05 looked slightly puzzled by the question for a moment before he understood what Tony meant. "You mean the shortening of your designation?" Tony nodded. "Well, it's kind of tiring to call everyone with their complete designation and since I don't know your name, your real name, I will just make the best of your new one. At least yours resembles a name on a way, not like mine." He leaned closer to Tony and whispered into the smaller boys ear: "My real name is Leonid but you can only call me that when no adult can hear you. Понял?*" Tony nodded and LK– no Leonid, stared at him strangely. "Can you understand Russian already?" Tony hesitated and then nodded. Leonid looked impressed once Tony got the courage to look up from the ground. "Oh wow. And you are only four and an American at that!"

After their little conversation, Leonid gave Tony a small tour, explaining him the rules for the Red Room and its purpose. "They are trying to create superhumans of all kinds. I am sure you saw the little redheaded girl on your way to the testing room, didn't you?" A small nod and Leonid continued. "She and a few other girls are part of the 'Black Widow' project where they try to great the perfect spy and assassin… Her designation is NR03 by the way. I myself am part of a project where they try to combine humans with technology: the 'Blue Knives' project… the rate of success isn't very high up to now…" He gave Tony a sad look. "You will be part of that too, once you are older. But till then you will probably trained as well as educated in various areas like everyone else."

Once Leonid had shown Tony everything he could in this moment, they made their way to the mixed sleeping 'dorms' for a lack of a better term and introduced Tony to the other children that were already there. "Everyone this is AES04, he is new and American so be nice." Everyone ignored them mostly except for the little girl Tony had seen earlier and whom Leonid had called NR03. She came towards them and studied Tony before holding out her hand, which Tony took after a moment of hesitation. "Nice too meet you AES04. I'm NR03…" She hesitated and looked at Leonid who nodded to her encouragingly. "You can call me Natasha…" She whispered finally. Tony blinked in surprise and then offered his own name, also whispering so that only Leonid and Natasha could hear him. "Tony. Nice to meet you too."

And so Tony found the first hold in this new place in form of Leonid and Natasha that would hold many hurdles and much pain…

* * *

*Понял? = Understood?


	2. Chapter 1: The first Hurdles

**Chapter 1: The first Hurdles**

* * *

_**Thanks so much for your great reviews! I wouldn't have thought that it would be liked by so many to follow it since it had only been a random idea I had when I was bored... Ah, well I'm just glad you like it and I hope I won't disappoint you in the next chapters! **_

_**Enough of my rambling now, enjoy!**_

* * *

Tony had been already at the Russian science facility for two weeks. Despite the logical part of his mind (the biggest part) said that he shouldn't get close to anyone, a very small irrational part that he couldn't pinpoint made him do just that: he, Leonid and Natasha grew close like siblings in only a few days but then…

Then one of his siblings was taken from him. It was just after the breakfast; Dr Turgenev came into the room and took Leonid with him. Leonid gave Natasha and Tony a small signal to reassure them that everything would be fine – a lie they knew, but they would still hope in silence and together.

They never saw him again; only screams echoed throughout the facility and even the ones that had perfected their masks of emotionlessness winced at the pain and agony in the screams.

Tony and Natasha were fighting against others of their class when Dr Turgenev stepped into the training area and signalled them to stop. His expression was as cold as Howard's had been when he had caught Jarvis while trying to get Tony out of the mansion – Tony's hand twitched slightly at the thought - as he told them: "Today LK05 came out to be another failure despite his promising progress. As a consequence, your training will be intensified and you will be punished severely if you are caught not giving your best when you are ordered to do something, understood?" A chorus of "Yes sir." was his answer, which seemed to satisfy him for the moment because he turned and left them to train again.

Tony and Natasha sat that night together on Tony's bed once everyone else was asleep and made a promise in memory of Leonid, that made it their goal to survive this hell and one day get out of it – together.

They rose to the top of their 'class' while simultaneously being put through extreme experiments that improved their human limits to their peek. They stuck together trough thick and thin, despite having to fight sometimes against each other – leading to serious injuries – or together against bulky adults and having to kill their classmates during 'training' sessions.

In addition to that, Tony was trained in the use of technology once the scientists found out that Tony had a brilliant mind attuned to maths and everything connected to technology. This fact made him also a perfect candidate for the 'Blue Knives' program that had killed Leonid. The day he was told that he "should feel proud to be part of an even more important part of the operation than some of the other children"; he sat at night huddled together with Tasha on his bed, comforting each other silently and praying (not that they believed that it would help) to whoever would listen to get through this alive.

Tony was ten at that time, just as Leonid had been, but they didn't just infuse him with whatever they were mixing together in their labs – they slowly let Tony's body get used to the changes since they didn't want to lose one of their most promising subjects.

They changed Tony's biology over the course of six long years (_god they were so long, longer than the years before_); succeeding in transplanting a really small circular device in his chest right over his heart that fused itself with his body, giving him a higher regeneration factor and unexpectedly causing Tony's eyes to glow a light blue when he felt extreme emotions (even if he sometimes couldn't understand what kind of emotions they were).

* * *

On his sixteenth birthday they scientists 'gifted' him with a new addition that allowed him to transform body parts into armour as long as he was wearing something metal (no mater how small) as well as being able to create weapons through touch – once he touched something metal or connected to any kind of computer, he could shift its form to any weapon he wanted it to but he still preferred to use knives, swords as well as quiver and bow instead of guns and such. He had bad memories of guns – _a drunken Howard holding a gun and directing it at the then three year old Tony, firing and only Tony's quick learned ability to dodge and run saved his life, running as fast as he could to his room barricading himself in there, despite Howard pounding on the door, till Jarvis came back from shopping_.

He was the first to survive this fusion and thus became officially the first successful Blue Knives, just as Natasha became the Black Widow.

Of course they could control Tony's ability like all the others they gave their "precious" children so that they couldn't decide on a wimp to escape their "care" (more like total control). Once a child reached eighteen (which was extremely rare) it was brainwashed completely through machines – unlike the years from where the child came to the facility to then, where they were only brainwashed through words and actions.

But despite their best efforts to brainwash Natasha and Tony through words and actions, the two had still their free will – especially the will to escape one day – but the scientists and doctors didn't realise this because they behaved like good little puppets should.

They didn't talk back, fought without mercy against the other children and obeyed their commands – but inside they only had their goal in mind while doing so. Their tactic succeeded and they were almost ready to escape when suddenly a new factor was thrown into their equation: a man from Afghanistan, who wouldn't be missed by anyone since he had no one anymore and thus made a perfect test subject for the part of their program that was trying to improve adults instead of children. His name was Ho Yinsen, a kind-hearted older man who tended to Tony's and Natasha's wounds – on his first day in the facility – after another brutal training session, without being told to. He tried a bit of small talk with the two who were – despite Yinsen's nice behaviour – still wary of the adult.

"My name is Ho Yinsen. What are your names?" He asked gently as he cleaned a nasty head wound Tony had received – they didn't tell him that they wound would be totally gone in a few hours because he seemed to find something like inner peace while he was helping them and so they kept their mouths shut on this topic. Their answers to Yinsen were their normal designations instead of their well-kept names. "This is NR03 and I am AES04." Yinsen stared strangely at them once Tony had said that with an emotionless voice.  
"And what are your real names? Or don't you remember them? How long have you been here?" The onslaught of questions made Tony uncomfortable and he drew slightly away – towards Tasha. Yinsen realized this and stopped immediately. "I am sorry. I didn't want to ask you to much, it's just that… I do not know what to expect and I hope that you two hadn't had to go through whatever will happen to me for to long. I mean you are what, fourteen?" "Something like this, we don't have calendars to keep track of time." Tony lied – of course he knew how old he was , even to the day but he wouldn't tell a complete stranger that and Tasha was surely thinking the same because she didn't contradict his statement.

Yinsen nodded sadly "I had feared so… What about your 'designations', I think they were called, why are they like this?"

Tony's facial expression didn't change but his eyes were clearly saying 'if you haven't figured that out you are a complete moron', Natasha elbowed him in the side giving him a 'don't be rude. He isn't here that long.' look. He sighed and finally said: "Our designations are made up from the first letters of our real names and the numbers stand for how old we were when we came here."

The older mans eyes widened in understanding and a horrified look replaced the surprise. "Oh god…" Tears ran down Yinsen's face, puzzling Tony and Tasha. Tony cocked his head to the side. "Why are you crying? Are you hurt? Jarvis once told me that you cry if you are hurt badly or if you are sad, are you sad?" He asked like an innocent child, despite his actual age he still didn't understand reactions of humans towards certain things and then a childlike curiosity would lead him to asking questions without a second thought. Yinsen just shook his head and whipped the tears away with the sleeve of his grey shirt. "I am not hurt. The thought of how long you had to go through this… it makes me sad. No one should go through something like this. …Who is this Jarvis you mentioned?"

Natasha, who knew that Tony hadn't really thought about the words he had said, took Tony's hand in hers and squeezed it (a small sign of 'I'm here for you' since it were only the three of them). She knew that it hurt him talking about the only person that hadn't tried to kill before coming to the Red Room. Tony gladly accepted her encouragement and squeezed her hand back. "He was someone… different. He treated me different than my creators and was the first to do so, one of three. Now four." Again Yinsen looked crushed by the words Tony had spoken – 'different' and 'creators' were clear indicators that the boy didn't understand love and feelings in general. It was then that Yinsen made it his goal to teach the only two other 'subjects' in this facility (everyone else had already died) about morals, feelings and everything that they hadn't been taught their lives up to now…


	3. Chapter 2: Too late

**Chapter 2: Too late**

* * *

_**Hi again! Thank you all for your great reviews! For once I wanted to defer to some of your reviews, so here it goes:**_

_**LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books:** Thanks for all your reviews so far (I mean also the once from my other Avengers story) and I wanted to tell that yeah I found it creepy too as I wrote the part about Tony talking like a child but I thought that the Red Room had to mess with his brain somehow (more than it already had) even if they couldn't brainwash him._

_**Mel72000:** Thanks for your review and to tell you the truth I already finished this story on paper and the explanation of how Howard sold to the Russian wasn't really planned to be explained... My thought went more like this; Howard Stark was a powerful man in his time and since his family life was something the media was interested in, he couldn't just get Tony out of the way without bad press and so he told the world that Tony died of an illness and sold him in reality to the Russian by contacting them through shady contacts that even SHIELD didn't know about at that point. And yeah that was my train of thought, I mean he was a Stark and if they want something they get it..._

_**Anon:** Thanks! Tony's new additions actually were oriented on the arc reactor and I am happy that you like my writing __style!_

**_So now that I took that load of my mind: Enjoy!_**

* * *

Ho Yinsen had given his best to teach Tony and Natasha about things they weren't taught because they were seen as 'unnecessary'. After some time he got them even to open up so far as to tell him their real names instead of their designations. They also told him what kind of experiments were being down in this facility as well as their own 'improvements'.

Yinsen had already been with them for half a year when it became clear that something had happened. The scientist got nervous, trying to hurry with their experiments despite the years they had put into the projects before.

"Maybe someone had finally caught wind of what is going on here?" Yinsen suggested one night as they sat together in the room where they slept. "Or someone is putting pressure on them to finally finish the projects?" Natasha threw in.

"Whatever is going on, I am sure that they will soon take one of us - or maybe even everyone of us – to give us the 'finished touch'." Tony said solemnly, remembering Leonid as he said that.

Yinsen nodded in agreement and took of his bracelet and his necklace he had been allowed to keep (for whatever reason). "I am pretty sure I will be the first to be taken since I am not as important to them as you two and if they screw up with me, it won't be that fatal for them. So I want to give you two the only thing I can, besides my knowledge…" He held out the necklace to Natasha and the metal bracelet to Tony. They both took the items reluctantly, not just because of what it would mean for them if Yinsen would end up being right but Tony because he also would be punished severely if he was caught with something out of metal in his possession. But even though they took them and put them around their neck or rather the wrist. Then suddenly Yinsen took them into a bear hug and the two let for once their guard a bit down and hugged him back.

* * *

The next day Yinsen's prediction came partly true but instead of taking just him, they took all three – separating Natasha from the two males of the group and tied Tony and Yinsen up on two operation tables that were opposite of each other.

The scientists first worked on Yinsen, injecting the older man with something that caused him great pain, making him scream out in pain, simultaneously they started cutting into Yinsen's flesh – holding the poor man down while doing so – and started to insert mechanical parts to replace biological ones. Meanwhile Tony couldn't do anything but watch someone that had grown close to him reduced to nothing but a screaming, bloody body. The code in the chip that had once been transplanted into Tony, keeping him from just transforming Yinsen's bracelet into a knife but that didn't mean that he wasn't still trying to do something – anything!

Suddenly Yinsen's screams stopped and the heart monitor that had been connected to the man began to wail instead. For a moment Tony thought his own heart had stopped (which it hadn't because then his heart monitor would have made a noise too) and then his world became one of strong, dark emotions, clouding his rational mind. The metal cuffs that had tied him to the table snapped and Tony felt the bracelet change it form into something new. He moved swift and deadly – the scientists didn't even know what came over them.

Once everyone in the room was dead, a sea of blood lay to Tony's feet as he made his way over to Yinsen's dead body. Even in death you could see the agony he had felt in his last moments on his face and Tony closed the eyes of the other man so that his dead eyes weren't staring into nothingness any longer.

Then as if someone had flipped a switch back, Tony sunk to the ground – his grey trousers changing into red as they soaked in the blood of the dead. His hands lay limp in his lap (changed b, something wet dripping on them and as Tony lifted one hand to his face he realised that he was crying.

Before he could get lost in his thoughts, he could make out the sound of man running down the halls, throwing open doors and instinctively Tony crouched into a ready position to attack whomever would come through the doors but while his body was ready his head wasn't and so he was frozen in his ready-attack-stance when the doors burst open.

Men in suits stormed through the door, guns directed at him once they saw the dead bodies surrounding them. Some became slightly green in the face as their eyes landed on Yinsen's mutilated body. A man stepped through the door and Tony growled like an animal (yes his brain was still on standby) as the man stepped closer to him and Yinsen's dead body.

The man raised his hands in the global gesture of 'I am unarmed' (as if!) and said slowly and in a calm tone in Russian with an American accent: "Relax, we are not here to harm you" 'As long we don't have to' was left unspoken. "My name is Agent Coulson. What's your name?" The man – now identified as Agent Coulson – took another slow step towards Tony but before he could get to close, something fell from ceiling and hit the ground hard. A young man, with quiver and bow had fallen out of the air duct system and was followed by a bad-tempered Natasha who landed gracefully in front of Tony – handing him her metal necklace with one hand and holding a gun in the other. At the sight of his little sister, Tony's brain seemed to finally reboot and he stood up from his crouching position, changing the bracelet and the necklace into weapons and giving the once-necklace-now knife back to Tasha.

Meanwhile the archer had stood back up and positioned himself beside Agent Coulson who hadn't moved from his spot and had followed Tony's display of his ability with well-hidden curiosity.

"AES… Y" Tony nodded in understanding of what Tasha was trying to say without giving something important away as she had glimpsed at Yinsen. It was also her way of saying 'we have to get away from here, from them – now!' and so Tony jumped up to the opening of the ventilation shaft, convinced that Tasha would follow him.

And she did but not before giving the suits a cold look. Together, Tony and Natasha navigated their way out of the underground facility – strangely without being followed – but they never left their guard down during their escape.

* * *

Back in the lab with the pile of dead bodies, Agent Coulson was still staring at the ceiling where the boy and the girl had disappeared in. The archer turned puzzled to his superior. "Sir? Shouldn't we follow them and take them in?"

Agent Coulson turned shifted his gaze from the ceiling to the younger man. "Agent Barton, I am sure that we will see them again one day and till then we still have much work to do, like giving this poor man a proper burial and making sure that nothing like this will ever happen again in the world."

Barton nodded in understanding, hearing the unspoken 'I am curious what they will do with their new found freedom.' To be honest Agent Barton too was curious what they would do after years of being experimented on…


	4. Chapter 3: On the run

**Chapter 3: On the run**

* * *

_**Thanks again for your great reviews.**_

_**Mel72000:** Thank you too. Your reviews got me thinking: maybe if I get enough ideas together, I will write a side story where different one shots could explain some of the circumstances better. But I make no promises that there will be such a thing (even if I will try)._

_**Anon: **Thanks again! To answer your question: I thought that Clint would be around 19-21 and had been recruited by SHIELD a few years prior despite relatively young his age._

* * *

They had made it! After almost thirteen years in that hell, they had finally succeeded in escaping! …Only two things were dampening the joy of being finally free: the death of Yinsen and the high possibility of these Agents trying to capture them, presumably wanting to experiment on them too.

Tony and Natasha had stolen one of the cars in the hangar and left it in the first town they got to where they stole new clothes – even if their 'inner Yinsen' told them that you shouldn't steal. It was that or running around in bloodied clothes and getting arrested by the local police.

Once they had stolen some clothes – dark blue hoodie, jeans, sneakers and a warm jacket for Tony and dark red hoodie, jeans, boots and also a warm jacket for Natasha – they planned to take a bus (with stolen money…) to next bigger city.

But the bus they wanted to take would only drive the next day again and so they strolled through the small town, amazed at the simplest things they saw like children _playing_ in a small park, birds sitting and singing in the trees, the sun on their pale skin and the snow that had only fallen a few day prior.

The people in the town were nice towards them – even though they were complete strangers – and a kind old lady asked them where they were staying and they had answered "Nowhere, we don't have the money for that." 'Or more like we don't want to steal more than necessary…'.

The old lady had dragged the bewildered Tony and Natasha to her house (more precisely, they let her drag them) where she feed them with things they had never eaten in their lives before and tasted heavenly. She even waved them good-bye the next day as their bus stop left the small town and towards the next bigger city.

From there they started to earn money with the only thing they were exceedingly good in: killing. But they didn't just kill anybody – no they only took down targets they found to be 'morally acceptable to kill'.

Simultaneously Tony improved his skills with technology, inventing new things – but only in his head since they were constantly moving and new inventions would only slow them down.

With each mission they took, they slowly became more and more known and feared in the underground as Black Widow and Blue Knives while they made their way towards their next goal after escaping the labs: America.

When they had first met, Tony had told Natasha (and Leonid) that his male creator (father) had been Howard Stark and the then trio had sworn that if they should ever get out, they would go to America and eliminate Howard Stark for what he had put Tony through (they couldn't do that to Natasha's or Leonid's parents since they hadn't had any part in their children landing in a lab since they had already been dead before that). It had been Natasha's and Tony's goal too when they had gotten out but after some research in a internet-café, they had found out that Howard and Maria Stark had died in a car crash.

But despite this literally dead end concerning the revenge, Tasha had still suggested in going to America since Howard's company still existed and maybe he could earn it for himself if he outed himself as 'Anthony Edward Stark' (although that possibility was highly unlikely) and if that didn't work they still could make new lives for themselves in America leaving Russia behind them and if Tony wanted to, they could track down Edwin Jarvis – the former Stark butler – so the Tony could maybe talk to the first important person in his life again...

While they were saving money, they had to change places almost weekly for almost two years because Agents of the U.S. agency – called Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division (or in short SHIELD) as they had found out – that had stormed the lab back then were still trying to track them down.

You've got to hand it to them that they were persistent and there had been a few close calls where the guy with the quiver and bow that Natasha had kicked out of the air ducts back then and Agent Coulson had almost caught them when they had stayed in one place to long.

Undeterred by this, Natasha and Tony still planed to go to America even if that meant to enter the lion's den itself and so they continued their game of cat-and-mouse with Agent Coulson and the still unnamed archer.

But then something went wrong on what should have been Tony's and Natasha's last mission before leaving for America…

* * *

_**Note: Hm… Somehow this turned out to be my shortest chapter for this story but I wanted to make a cut here and make the next chapter the last one... Ah, well, I just hoped you liked it despite its shortness! ^^**_


	5. Chapter 4: MG: Eliminate Target RoS: ?

**Chapter 4: Mission Goal: Eliminate Target; Rate of Success: ?**

* * *

Tony and Natasha had decided to take on one last mission before finally taking a plan to fly over the ocean towards America and exactly that decision was one they shouldn't have made.

The mission started simple: search target, gain enough information about it and then eliminate it. The first two parts had been easy as taking a walk through the park but the last part – yeah, well lets say it wasn't going as smoothly as it should…

It seemed as if someone had given the target – the boss of a drug cartel that had destroyed of many young people – a hint of him being the next target of the infamous Black Widow and Blue Knives duo, which was why Natasha and Tony had run into some 'small' complications.

When they had reached the hideout that the drug cartel was using, the whole building was swarming of goons with guns and whatnot. But they hadn't been trained their whole life to just give up because the situation had changed, as they proven often enough: they were adaptable and this was no different.

They stuck to the shadows expertly and avoided the guards till they reached the area where their target was located. Natasha made herself ready to fire her gun while Tony looked out for any threats. Then, just as Tasha pulled the trigger, a man spotted them and alarmed his buddies before Tony could put the knife through his throat and chaos broke out.

They were clearly outnumbered but still they didn't give up as they fought their way towards the exit. Natasha and Tony had been separated by a group of goons surrounding each of them when Tony saw one that stood at the side-lines, pointing something at Natasha and seeing that she wouldn't react fast enough if he called to her, reacted instinctually by throwing himself in the line of fire – his ability to transform his body into an armour reacting to slow so that he was hit by some kind of dart. At first Tony didn't feel any different and continued to fight against the enemy but once he and Natasha had taken down most of them (the others having fled), he felt a wave of dizziness and his vision went black. The last thing he heard before he lost consciousness was Tasha's scream. "Tony!"

* * *

He felt heavy, cold and it took him a lot of strength to just open his eyes. Something blurred came into his field of vision but despite not being able to see it clearly, he still knew what or more precisely who it was: Natasha.

He tried to speak, wanting to ask what had happened, why his healing factor hadn't kicked in and at the same time wanting to reassure her that he would be fine as he felt something wet drop on his face but instead nothing came out.

But Natasha, as always, seemed to know what he wanted to say. "You had been poisoned. A poison that would kill a normal person instantly." The 'you are only alive because of your healing factor' went unsaid but she didn't have to say it for Tony to hear it. If his high healing factor had saved his life then that would explain why was feeling like shit since it was overloaded with keeping him alive and his body didn't have the strength to heal the rest…

The last thing Tony remembered before drifting back to sleep, was a hand holding his and Natasha singing an old Russian song that she always sang when one of them had been badly wounded to take of their thoughts of their wounds.

* * *

The sight of Tony grinning at her while being surrounded by dead bodies – had at first been a relieve (seeing that he was alright) but the relieve had been short lived when he suddenly frowned and his eyes rolled into his head… In that moment Tasha had felt as if someone had thrown a bucket of ice water over her head while simultaneously ramming a knife into her heart and twisting it mercilessly. Without thinking (something the Red Room should have trained out of her but hadn't) she had screamed his name and sprinted towards him.

The moment she saw him breathing (ever so slowly) a great weight was lifted from her heart. Checking him over, she found the typical signs of poisoning – if Natasha was correct, one that would kill any normal human in a really short amount of time.

Once again glad for Tony's and her own healing factor, she carried him the whole way to the small warehouse that had originally been just for planning their strategy for eliminating their target.

Inside the warehouse she laid Tony gently down on a cot and tucking him in thick blankets when he began to shiver. An hour later Tony woke up for a short moment where Tasha told him what had happened when she saw him opening his mouth to ask but no sound came out.

After that she sang for him in Russian and stayed by his side constantly (only leaving if she had to) and so a whole day went by. You could see Tony getting slowly better with time (time they probably didn't have with SHIELD closely behind their every step) and as if the universe wanted make fun of them, Natasha and Tony found themselves surrounded…

* * *

"Targets located sir." Hawkeye reported as he trained his bow at NR03 or Natasha Romanov as the files of the Red Room had told them and AES04 from whom they only could find out the real identity as the 'Anthony Edward Stark' through blood tests from the blood they had found of him since there hadn't been any notes in his files of his real name.

The Black Widow was hovering over Blue Knives who was lying on the ground, shivering and packed in thick blankets. She turned around, looking directly at Hawkeye and whipped her head back when her partner said something that sounded in the relative silence of the warehouse like "Tasha… leave without… without me. You can… escape alone."

These words touched Hawkeye somehow, here was someone – who had spend most of his life in a lab as a guinea pig – close to dying and what did he do? Tell the only person that had gone through hell with him to go and save herself!

It was then that Hawkeye made a decision that went against his orders but he stood to it anyway. He jumped down from his observation point and stepped slowly closer towards the wounded duo, careful of any sudden movements.

"Hi, the name is Clint Barton. Would you like to join us?" Clint said in a friendly tone, hands held high in the air. _"What?! Hawkeye what do you think you are doing?! Your order are to take them into custody until the World Security Council has decided what will happen to them!" _One Agent screamed into the earpiece almost deafening Clint in the process, while Agent Coulson decided no to interfere and just trust the Hawk to make the right decision.

* * *

Clint took another step towards the pair and Natasha was ready to attack him if he gave her a reason to, the tension in her body caused Tony to grit his teeth and he tried to stand up to aid his partner – failing miserably. The action almost caused him to hit the ground face first if Natasha hadn't turned away from their possible enemy (an irrational action but one Tony was glad for anyway in that moment). Meanwhile Barton had stopped getting closer, hands still held high. "I don't want to kill you" 'if I don't have to' "I just want to make you an offer."

Natasha eyed the agent suspiciously, never letting go of Tony in that time who hung like a dead weight on her because he had no strength to stand by himself yet. "What kind of offer?"

A slight smile tugged on Clint's lips. "How about you come with us, not as prisoners but as future agents? SHIELD could offer you protection from others that just want to use you as guinea pigs." The 'again' hung unsaid between them in the air.

Again the Agent that had already tried to deafen Clint through his screaming – exclaimed a shocked "What?!" but before he could hold a speech on how the World Security Council would have a say in such things, was silenced by a hand movement from Coulson. "Let him. Whatever happens next, I will take full responsibility in front of the Director **and** the World Security Council if I have to."

At the same time Natasha had exchanged a silent conversation with Tony and they had come to a decision.

Natasha then turned to Hawkeye. "We accept but under the condition that we can leave at anytime without death threats fro SHIELD or the government hanging over our heads for no good reason."

"I am sure that can be arranged and if not – I will have your backs when you decide to retire." These words caught the two assassins by surprise (if the slightly widening of their eyes and the wordless exchange between them was an indicator).

"…Do you need help?" Clint asked, nodding towards Tony who was only standing upright through Natasha. Reluctantly they nodded as one – Clint wondered then not for the first time if they could read each others minds or if they just so in synch with the other… Clint finally let his arms down and helped his future co-workers carrying one of them to a car that SHIELD had provided where Agent Phil Coulson was already waiting for them.

The car took them to a motel where they stayed for the rest of the night before Agent Coulson and Clint Barton aka Hawkeye took them to a plane the next day, which had also been organized by SHIELD. Natasha and Tony were in handcuffs that were only for show since the four of them knew that Tony and Tasha could escape out of them anytime they wanted to but it made the other agents of SHIELD a bit more comfortable in the presence of the two assassins.

Once inside the plane, Tony allowed himself a moment of weakness and slumped down in the next best seat in exhaustion – the poison still hadn't left his system completely. He hated how fast he was exhausted and not even his fast healing factor was helping right now.

Tony's eyes were slipping shut when suddenly handcuffed hands came into his already narrowed vision and touched his own gently, causing him to look up and meeting Natasha's eyes. He gave her a small smile. "'m fine. Just tired, don't worry Tasha…" and then he was sleeping like a log.

Natasha tucked a strand of hair that had fallen into Tony's face behind his ear and turned around to sit down in the nearest seat to his.

She met the knowing looks of Coulson and Clint with a nod and feel into a light doze where she would be able to react to any changes in Tony's condition.

* * *

Once they had finally reached SHIELD HQ, Clint Barton expanded his arms as if going to embrace the building in front of them but instead spun around on the spot, to face Natasha and Tony (whose healing factor had wiped out the poison in his system completely during the flight), and said with a wide grin on his face: "Welcome to your new home!"

* * *

_**The End?**_

…

_**Maybe, maybe not. The opportunity of writing a sequel exists or at least a few side stories but I am not sure if I will take it… But still, I just hope that you enjoyed reading it! :)**_

_**(And yes there was a light touch of IronWidow at the end but it could also be just interpreted as sibling love if you don't like that pairing – it's up to you. ^^)**_


End file.
